Microsoft and Calstrs Contribute $175 Million to Al Gore Venture
Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management launched a project that has gathered $175 million to fund companies that help restore land damaged by deforestation and agriculture.
A statement released Tuesday states that the funds will support Generation’s Just Climate’s natural climate solutions approach. Anchor investors include the California State Teachers’ Retirement System and Microsoft Corp.’s Climate Innovation Fund. Consequently, the investment manager manages $1.8 billion in assets, including a fund aimed at heavy sector decarbonization.
“The energy transition is a widely accepted idea,” stated Clara Barby, a senior partner at Just Climate. “The land transition will be the next wave when you look at the science, data, and the sources of the emissions.”
According to Barby, there is “addressable” and “huge” potential to reduce emissions on deforested and agricultural land. As much as a third of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by harmful farming practices, which include the misuse of chemical pesticides, the loss of forests, and the disruption of food systems. Therefore, addressing the climate catastrophe requires restoring ecosystems and rethinking food production.
According to Barby, “How we are burning fossil fuels today has to change in the same way that we are practicing land management today.” According to her, both “are unsustainable.”
According to co-Chief Investment Officer Eduardo Mufarej, Just Climate is investigating a pipeline of deals ranging from biological fertilizers to technologies for regenerative agriculture and waste-to-energy projects. This comes after the company invested in natural-climate solutions in a UK startup that assisted clients in measuring their environmental impact earlier this year.
In an interview, Mufarej stated that four areas are being targeted: waste and water, enabling technology, food value chains, and forest and ecosystem restoration. He says the objective is to make “catalytic” investments by avoiding well-known assets like renewables in Europe.
This means that the cy investigates everything from waste-to-energy projects to regenerative agricultural technology to biobiologicalrtilizers. According to Mufarej, other areas of interest include trash reduction and wildfire control solutions, technology for monitoring biodiversity and soil health, and those that may be used to track cattle grazing.
Gore, a former US vice president and ardent climate change activist, launched Generation twenty years ago with David Blood, a former executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and five other partners.
